Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Sudanese authorities on Wednesday questioned witnesses in the slaying of an American diplomat who was shot by gunmen in a drive-by attack in the capital.

Sudanese officials insisted the shooting was not a terrorist attack but the U.S. Embassy said it was too soon to determine the motive.

John Granville, 33, an official for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was being driven home at about 4 a.m. Tuesday when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene, the Sudanese Interior Ministry said.

The diplomat's driver, Abdel-Rahman Abbas, was killed. Granville initially survived the attack with five gunshot wounds to the hand, shoulder and stomach. He died after surgery, said Walter Braunohler, the public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.

Sudanese police said they have questioned a number of witnesses from the scene of the attack "and investigations are continuing based on their statements," the state news agency SUNA reported Wednesday.

Granville was working to implement a 2005 peace agreement between Sudan's north and south that ended more than two decades of civil war, USAID said.

USAID Administrator Henrietta H. Fore said the two men killed "were serving the common interests of the U.S. and the Sudan in bringing peace and stability to a country that has long been wracked by violence and conflict."

Granville's family in Buffalo, N.Y. said he was committed to his work in Africa.